We’ve been making a lot of unplanned upgrades. Micah’s cell phone died, and we didn’t think it was worth paying $50.00 to replace it with the same one. His contract isn’t up until November, but I was eligible for an upgrade. I bought a Droid Eris, and he got my EnV2. We both got upgrades out of the deal. I may never own an iPhone, so this is the closest I could get for under $100.00.

The battery on my laptop didn’t hold a charge anymore, and the AC adapter was held together by electrical tape. It was like this for a couple of months before I finally figured it was time to find a good deal on a battery. Then, I’d replace the adapter a few weeks later. This turned into a disaster.

I bought the battery on eBay. It arrived, and the first thing I noticed was that it was incredibly bulky. I assumed it would be bigger because it was a 12-cell battery. This was ridiculous, though. The laptop sat at an angle on the table and was lopsided. I couldn’t even type with it. A few hours later, I planned on removing it to request a return. That was when it crashed. I spent more than 15 hours over the course of two days working to fix it. Luckily, they were Micah’s days off, so he helped with the kids. I was able to backup my files by use of an Ubuntu live CD and a flash drive, which was just in the nick of time. The hard drive since has stopped functioning properly (lots of bad sectors). I tried to replace it, and that didn’t fix the problem. I’ve concluded there is most likely damage to the motherboard and possibly the memory. It’s not an easy fix, but I haven’t given up on it entirely. It is going to take a lot of new parts and time, and I need to find the cheapest parts possible to make it worthwhile.

Meanwhile, I ordered a new laptop. I didn’t want to do this for at least another year or two. I really struggled with the decision because I don’t let myself buy things very often that are only for me. If we do have a little extra money, I’m always buying clothes for the kids or doing some work on the house.

It shipped on Monday and will be here tomorrow! With 3 kids running around the house, it’s a lot easier having a laptop that I can move around.

Winter is always a quiet time around here. It won’t be quiet for long. The twins have February vacation soon, and Lily will be here in less than 4 months!